A Tale of Two Fires: Retreat and Rebound a Decade After Wildfires in California and South Carolina

Abstract

In recent decades, wildfires have destroyed growing numbers of homes in the United States. Wildfire recovery has emerged as a critical time to reduce future vulnerability, yet we lack knowledge of how rebuilding efforts unfold over time, and are shaped by resident and housing characteristics, land use planning, and government regulations. We used a case study approach to document housing recovery a decade post-event for the Highway 31 fire in suburban South Carolina, and the Station fire in exurban California (both in 2009). We found divergent rebuilding and mitigation outcomes; rebuilding was rapid after the Highway 31 fire (all but one house rebuilt) but minimal (11.7% houses rebuilt) after the Station fire where a complex setting and regulation regime effected an ‘unmanaged retreat.’ We discuss implications for post-fire recovery programming and the need for longitudinal research as the world faces increasing wildfire losses.

Keywords:

• Disaster
• hazard
• managed retreat
• recovery
• WUI

Acknowledgements

We thank Stephen Quarles for sharing his expertise on building materials. Journal reviewers, editorial staff, J. Morgan Grove, Edith Hannigan, and Michelle Johnson provided valuable feedback on the manuscript. The findings and conclusions in this publication are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.

Notes

1 For homes that were rebuilt by owner after the Hwy 31 fire, we examined timing of rebuilding to see if owners remained following rebuilding. We found the quickest sale was three years post-rebuilding (on average 4.8 years after being rebuilt, n = 10 sales), suggesting that homeowners who rebuilt intended to own the house afterwards.

Additional information

Funding

We are indebted to all interviewees for sharing their knowledge with us and grateful for support from Joint Fire Science Funding Program [award 14-2-01-6] and National Fire Plan funding from the USDA Forest Service (Northern Research Station and Rocky Mountain Research Station).